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Million-euro plea pays off for Louvre

"Astonishing perfection" - The Three Graces by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Alessia Pierdomenico, file photo: Reuters

Paris's Louvre museum says it has now received the extra one million euros ($1.4 million) in donations it needed to buy a 16th century German masterpiece.

Around 5,000 donors contributed after the prestigious museum set up a website last month to call for funds to buy the Renaissance painting of The Three Graces by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

The small work, painted in 1531 and always privately owned, shows three women against a dark background, wearing nothing but necklaces and, for the central figure, a red hat.

The owners were asking for four million euros for the work.

The Louvre had already collected three million euros from corporate donors and its own funds but needed the extra million to buy the painting, which it says is remarkable for its "astonishing perfection".